I’ve made a few changes to my shadow puppet comic since I was last working on it – like, they have elbows now instead of flexible tubes for arms* – so I’m redoing all I’ve done so far in this style. I thought about leaving it as it was and explaining it as the natural stylistic evolution that pretty much every comic ever goes through, but when this happens 1.25 pages into the cartoon it just seems like I hadn’t been prepared enough when I started.

It’s also kind of a test to see how dedicated I am to this comic. I don’t want it to turn out to be just another one of those ideas I work on for a week then give up on. If I can be bothered redrawing what I’ve already drawn, then maybe it’s an idea I’m actually prepared to commit myself to.

* I asked Mr. Nobody for their opinion and they thought Marge Simpson looked sexier with elbows.

My girlfriend read the Conan stories recently so I thought I’d borrow the movie from Aro Video and watch it with her. Rewatching it after fifteen years or so I was expecting to find it stupid and pointless, but actually it made me nostalgic for when stupid and pointless movies used to be simple and entertaining.

I was thinking of all the unbearable changes they’d make to the films if they remade them. Everyone would have short hair for a start, probably that short spiky hair style that almost every male has had for the last decade. There would also be designer stubble. Conan would be 18 and full of angst. Probably he would pout and say ‘it’s not fair!’ when the baddies gang up on him. Other times he’d just have an obnoxious smirk all the time. He’d have an annoying excitable sidekick straight out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer who’d make up words (‘wordificate’) all the time. The final act of revenge would be an epic computer generated battle with lots of explosions, rather than Arnie’s understated cutting-off-of-the-head. There would be WAY more dialogue, because what the world really needs is a couple of mismatched barbarians comedically discussing how to get blood stains out of leather. And Conan and the love interest would hate each other on first sight and exchange cutting remarks for three quarters of the film, even though the story isn’t really that much of a romantic comedy.

To summarise, Conan may be dated sword-and-sandal trash, but it’s still much better than UPdated sword-and-sandal trash.

Sometimes I’m compelled to mention that I really like Cat and Girl. It’s true that a lot of the time the jokes and references go over my head, but every now and then Dorothy creates strips that are wonderful in every possible way and I’d like to frame them and put them on the wall if I could.

I’m in New Plymouth for my girlfriend’s sister’s wedding. I have no witty remarks to make about New Plymouth. It’s kind of like any other medium-sized New Zealand town. The weather has been nice.

When I get back I’m going to try to start ‘producing’ a webcomic. I spent most of last year thinking about what to do, how to do it, why to do it, where to do it, when to do it, who to do it, all that sort of thing… I pretty much have no excuses any more. No more ‘should I do it this way or that way, even though there is only a minor difference’ questions to ponder for weeks on end. Anything further I can no longer explain away as constructive procrastination.

Random observation: a CD entitled ‘The Word’s Greatest Worship Music’. Can you believe that all of the greatest worship music in the world is Christian in denomination? Apparently no Muslim or Hindu or Jew or Buddhist or Pagan or Unorthodox Toaster-Oven has ever written a worship song of any note whatsoever.

If there had been people in the world sensible enough to insert a ‘^’ symbol between ‘Greatest’ and ‘Worship’ with the word ‘Christian’ above it, there would be a lot less wars.

I’ve observed this law of the universe that where more than four unrelated people cohabit in the same building, one or more of them will always be a scumbag.

There needs to be a name for this law.

Our most recent example of this is the flatmate who stopped paying rent, locked her door and disappeared without telling us. She was so quiet anyway that the rest of us assumed she was just keeping to herself the whole time; no, she was actually digging us into a financial quagmire over a couple of months.

REALLY.

Next person to move in will either be a cannibal or a neo-nazi or an internet troll or all of the above.

I sold some DVDs to Gullermo Del Toro. Apparently he’s a big fan of Doctor Who.

I found a hundred dollar note on the ground. Mine now.

A bus ripped part of this house off. Gone now.

I finally got bored of Sluggy Freelance and removed it from my bookmarks. Sorry Pete.

I’m going to create a CD with an endless loop of ‘Feliz Navidad’ and play it at work. My theory is that people try so hard to ignore Christmas music by now that they won’t notice for at least half an hour.

I didn’t actually post that comment in my last entry. That’s what I get for leaving myself logged in on other people’s computers.

I just finished watching Life on Mars on DVD. They were right to only make sixteen episodes – any more and the ‘what’s really happening to Sam?’ tension would have gone loose. I thoroughly recommend the show.

I haven’t achieved much else lately. I’m still brainstorming the shadow puppet comic strip idea thing. Given my past record I’ll probably never go anywhere with it but I need to have some project to brainstorm at any given time. When I say I need to I mean I can’t not have something to brainstorm. It’s just the way my brain’s wired. Every time I think about what I’d do if I weren’t doing anything creative, I come to the conclusion that I’d do something else creative with my free time instead. Or think about doing something creative.